Intern, Every Child Counts - J-PAL South Asia

Organization: J-PAL South Asia

Project: Every Child Counts NGO Cascade

Location: Remote (Delhi NCR Hybrid Working Preferred)

Start Date: 13th May, 2024

No. of positions: 1

Length of Commitment: 1 month

Minimum education and experience: Bachelor’s or Master’s Degree + previous internship experience

About the Organization

The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) J-PAL was established in 2003 as a research center at the Economics Department at MIT. Since then, it has grown into a global network of researchers who use randomized evaluations to answer critical policy questions in the fight against poverty. J-PAL is propelled by a first-rate team dedicated to research, policy, training, and other vital work, supporting J-PAL's mission to reduce poverty by ensuring that policy is informed by scientific evidence.

J-PAL South Asia, which is based at the Institute for Financial Management and Research (IFMR) in India, analyses and disseminates research results and builds partnerships with policymakers to ensure that policy is driven by evidence, and that programs proven effective are scaled up. We have a growing number of partnerships in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

Project Description

To deepen and expand our work in collaboration with state and central governments in India, J-PAL South Asia recently launched the Alliance for Scaling Policy Impact through Research and Evidence (ASPIRE). ASPIRE seeks to bring together governments, donors and CSO partners with the goal of generating new policy insights and evidence to inform the design and implementation of policies and programs that improve development outcomes. ASPIRE is a joint initiative of J-PAL South Asia at IFMR and Veddis Foundation.

Under ASPIRE, Every Child Counts (or Math-Games) is a key project that is currently being scaled-up across States. Math Games is an innovative math curriculum that aims to develop children's intuitive concepts of number and geometry, informed by decades of cognitive development research, and rigorously evaluated through three randomized evaluations in Delhi. We find that children exposed to these games exhibit gains in innate as well as school math skills compared to those who were not exposed to the games. The core principles of the program overlap with the aims and content of national policies like NEP, NIPUN Lakshyas and NCF. J-PAL SA is working with the Government of Andhra Pradesh, Government of Maharashtra and NGO Pratham to scale up Every Child Counts across States. J-PAL SA has also explored another unique pathway to scale based on the capacity building of other NGOs to implement Every Child Counts in collaboration with State governments. This is an excellent opportunity to impact the foundational numeracy skills and math learning outcomes of children by scaling evidence-based programs with other NGO Partners.

About the Position:

JPAL-SA conducted its first cohort of the NGO Certification Course in 2023-2024 where we built the capacity of these NGOs to understand and scale the evidence of Every Child Counts in their geography. We enabled these NGOs to develop their theory of change and monitoring plan for the implementation of the Math curriculum in their chosen geography. We are planning to launch the Certification Course for the second cohort of NGOs in 2024-2025 and are looking for someone who can contribute to landscaping NGOs and support in developing digital training materials for their capacity building.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Review and gather learnings from the landscaping work of the Cohort 1 NGO batch.
2. Understand the objectives of the Cohort 2 certification course to ideate and create criteria to select organizations for Cohort
3. Conduct the landscaping exercise on the selected criteria to assess the NGO partners in the ECCE space by extensively conducting secondary research.
4. Support the Every Child Counts team in developing training materials, presentations, manuals and knowledge products for the Certification Course.
5. Support the J-PAL SA Every Child Counts Scale-ups teams on any other tasks, as needed.

Desired Qualifications & Experience: Your keen eye for detail, strong research and documentation skills, organizational skills, passion for translating research into action, critical thinking, and interest in foundational literacy and numeracy make you an ideal candidate for the position

1. Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in economics, social sciences, public policy, or related fields
2. Prior relevant internship experience is a must
3. Excellent management and organizational skills along with strong skills for secondary research and documentation.
4. Fluency and excellent communication skills in English
5. Flexible, self-motivating, able to manage multiple tasks efficiently, and a team player
6. Proficiency with Microsoft Office and Google products
7. Familiarity with randomized controlled trials/clinical trials/quasi-experiments preferred
8. Ability to deal with unstructured and changing environments 
9. Proven ability to complete assigned tasks and meet deadlines while delivering high-quality outputs.

Note on Work Authorizations:

Candidates must have work authorization to work in India.